The Daily's Show's Aasif Mandvi: On Fundamentalism, Sex, and a Surprising Lack of Hate Mail

Back when I was in law school in New York, I caught this great one-man show called Sakina's Restaurant. The writer and actor, Aasif Mandvi, captured so well the funny and quirky aspects of being a South Asian-Muslim American. I laughed until I cried! And then I laughed some more! I had never seen a real show solely devoted to identity issues of my community before. Jon Stewart must have also seen the same qualities because, a few years later, he hired Aasif on the spot when Aasif auditioned for the "Daily Show." I am so proud to see Aasif on television (and also movies and other television shows) that I had to interview him and bring him to Glamocracy! Although he is quite funny, we mostly had serious talk about the election. Here's some of what he had to say.

Aasif, many people get their political news from you and your very funny colleagues. You probably know a lot about politics now, but were you always interested?

Not really. I was never a particularly political artist [or] a political junkie.... Being on the "Daily Show," it's like being surrounded by politics. It becomes the air that you breathe. I personally became politicized, as an artist, after 9/11. The way America changed after 9/11, from the virtue of being raised Muslim, being brown in America, politicized me from that aspect. I was becoming more political before I got the "Daily Show" gig.

Many Muslims feel that in Hollywood, as well as news coverage, there is a pro-Jewish bias that results in unflattering portrayals of Muslims or unfair reporting. As a Muslim comedian and working actor, what has been your experience?

As far as my voice on the show, I feel like it's pretty even. I get to represent pretty well considering that it's not being written by Muslim writers. Would it be different if there were more Muslim writers on the show? Maybe. But I don't know. It's important that there be a stronger Muslim, satirical, comedy voice out there. I think a bigger issue in Hollywood in general is sort of dealing with race and dealing with ethnicity and how to really integrate that into the mainstream.... That's why I think Obama is such an important candidate, and his presidency, if he gets elected, would be so important. It will force people to have to deal with race. It's definitely one of those things where I feel like in Hollywood in general and on the show, there is [the question]: what is the voice of the other, what is the voice of the person who is American and not American at the same time? I play that role on a good day. On a bad day, I get relegated to a place where I am not...best utilized. But I think that's true in Hollywood in general.

What is your critique of the presidential candidates?

On the one hand, you have the right, conservative, the social conservatives, who I think, [he pauses] there's enough said about that [already]! You have this liberal media that is also reductive in its own way. The conservatives are like "Bomb the s!*% out of Iraq," and the liberals are like "Don't bomb Iraq!" There's a loss of understanding. There's a loss of real engagement with the other, a real engagement. It's all reactionary.

Many Muslim men your age flirted with being a fundamentalist Muslim, being drawn to a conservative mosque or feeling alienated. Some Muslim men go through a conservative phase. Did you?

Yeah, I did actually. Mine was generated by the fact that I was attracted to this girl who was a born again Christian. She probably wanted me to be a born again Christian. I couldn't bring myself to becoming [one though] because I couldn't buy into Christianity. So I decided to become a born again Muslim. I decided to examine my faith, and I actually did go to some meetings at a mosque that might be considered fundamentalist. I was young. Once I realized, oh, I can't have sex? Then, that kind of ruined it for me. That was the end of that! I have to be honest. Once sex came into the equation, I thought, you know, I am not strong enough to do this!

Do you ever get any hate mail from jingoistic Americans or zealous Muslim extremists?